Tips
for Parents
August
Tip
7
Picky Eater Solutions
(parenting.com)
"If you make me eat this,
I will die!" my 5-year-old son, Daniel, wailed when I mixed peas with
pasta. The horror! But he's hardly the first kid to claim mortal danger from
a pea. Others eat only white food, won't go near meat, or gag at the thought
of eating a Tater Tot that's touched the burger. In fact, nearly two thirds
of parents describe at least one problem with their child's eating,
according to a study in Contemporary Pediatrics. Although pickiness
is normal and tends to lessen with age, you probably still feel you should
do something if your child is living on frozen waffles. Know what you can
do? Relax. There are no significant differences in overall nutrient intake
between picky eaters and other kids, another study in the same journal
found. And most likely, your child's diet seems worse than it is. See why on
the next page, and get plenty of tips on handling all kinds of fusspots --
even yours. Little kids long to control their worlds, and doing that
through food comes naturally. To break the push-pull cycle:
Let go of your end of the emotional rope. You can't
force your child to do anything, especially eat, so just stop trying. Simply
offer her nutritious, varied foods -- and eat them yourself. She can have
hers, or not, but you're showing her how. Do you still remember having to
eat your veggies or clean your plate before you could leave the table? Adam
Strauss, M.D., a pediatrician in Westwood and Mansfield, MA, offers a word
of caution. "When parents demand that their kids eat certain foods,
they're attaching negative connotations to it. Pretty soon, the struggle is
worse." Put the food on her plate, but if it stays there, don't push
her, and don't stress over it.
Give straightforward praise, even if
he takes only one bite of something new. For example: "It's
great that you tried the chili!" Basing the praise on how you feel
("Mommy's so happy!") sends a questionable message: He controls
your emotions with his fork. "I used to feel really attached to my
kids' eating the dishes I'd taken the time to make. My emphasis on my
split-pea soup especially made everyone miserable. Finally, one day I
ignored the soup but put out some fun sides, and the kids ended up tasting
the soup," recalls Heather Swain, mom of Graham, 2, and Clementine, 4,
in Brooklyn.
Don't get hung up on the time of day your child eats, or how much
she eats at a sitting. It's okay if your kid doesn't eat three
square meals every day as long as over the course of a week or two she eats
things from each food group.
Offer choices that don't matter. You may face stubborn
insistence that toast have a corner unbuttered to avoid messy hands, or that
cereal be served only in a Go Diego Go! bowl, or that nothing touch. While
this kind of behavior is draining, it's typical at this age, says Dr.
Strauss. Give him an option -- the green plate or the blue? Offering your
child a limited choice is often enough to end the power struggle. But make
your rules clear: "At home, you can choose your cup, but when we're
out, you have to use whatever they have."
My kid won't eat meat
The texture turns off many preschoolers, and that's fine. "My
two-and-a-half-year-old is basically a vegetarian, barring hot dogs and his
latest discovery, ham," says Elizabeth Gonzalez, mom of Jason, 2, in
Yorktown Heights, NY. "I offer lots of peanut butter, cheese, yogurt,
and veggie burgers, and he's doing just fine. We always ask if he wants meat
when I make it, but when he invariably says no, we say A-OK and try not to
press it." Like Jason, your child can still get all the protein he
needs from:
- yogurt, cheese, or cottage cheese
- nachos with beans and cheese
- hard-boiled eggs or any egg dish
- his favorite crackers dipped in hummus or spread with peanut (or nut)
butter
- cheese or even meat-filled ravioli (the pasta exterior goes a long way
for meat-haters)
- mini-tuna melts (if he's game for fish, but
stick to chunk light, only twice a week)
Veggies? Yeah, right
This is the most common picky-eater problem. To convince him it's easy
being green, try:
- thinly sliced veggies stir-fried with teriyaki sauce, maybe a little
chicken, and rice. Go with carrot slices and baby corn to start. Water
chestnuts have little taste, and can be a good stepping-stone to serious
veggies
- zucchini muffins and veggie lasagna. (Find
the world's easiest, kid-friendliest recipes at 10
Tasty Veggie Kid Meals.)
- lettuce wraps. Use a filling he'll eat (anything goes, from turkey to
cream cheese) and a romaine leaf as a wrap. The novelty of the whole
thing may just win him over.
- dressing -- honey mustard, ranch, even ketchup or melted butter --
with veggies for dipping. Put the plate next to a sure thing (say,
grilled cheese) to lure him to the table. We all tend to eat more when
the food is right in front of us.
- thinking outside the frozen-corn box.
"Graham hated all vegetables -- or so we thought," says
Heather Swain. "We tried peas, carrots, corn...then we put kale in
front of him. Turns out, he likes the bitter 'adult' veggies like kale,
chard, and broccoli rabe. By continually offering him choices, we
finally hit on what appeals to his taste."
Unless it's white, it's a no-go
Preschoolers like lots of colors in their pictures, but not always on
their plates. Consider:
- fruit smoothies. Blend a banana with vanilla yogurt for a healthy
sweet snack. You can freeze this for ice pops, too.
- mac and cheese made with whole-wheat (or whole-wheat -- blend)
macaroni. This may not fly, but you've got a better shot with a cheese
sauce than a tomato sauce or butter.
- oven-baked fries -- half regular and half sweet potato to ease your
child into the idea of other spuds.
- half white-/half whole-wheat -- bread toast and sandwiches in fun
shapes. Use cookie cutters.
- a rainbow meal. Take her to the market to
pick out red, orange, yellow, purple, pink, and green foods.
Article provided by Parenting.com
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